Chew With Your Mouth Closed
by FlyingBoar
Summary: Nico has a daughter, and Percy and Annabeth are meeting her for the first time. I wrote this before the House of Hades came out, so please don't kill me for "disputing Nico's sexuality". No I don't know who the mother is, she could be some random girl or an underworld nymph, or a runaway circus clown. Use your imagination.
1. Chapter 1

**(AN) Just a little idea I had. No actually I'm lying I have an entire head-cannon universe for this. Here's a sliver of it though, I hope you enjoy! P.S this is to be read as a sequel to my other story Frozen Peas. It can be read without though, you just might be a tad confused.**

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Percy and Annabeth walked up to the pavilion together. It was early, and the sky was just turning gray, but Annabeth had woken up early so that they could spend some time together before the day started. They sometimes liked to sit at the tables and talk quietly before the rest of the camp woke up, Annabeth nestled under Percy's arm.

They were walking up the hill, when they heard someone talking.

"...don't look at me like that, you know I'm trying my best. Look, Bianca, nobody cares if you chew with your mouth open sometimes. It doesn't hurt anyone. Besides, you're not my mom."

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. Percy recognized Nico's voice. But he was talking to Bianca, who was not only dead, but had been reborn years ago. About a month ago was the last time they had seen Nico, and even though they had been looking for him in order to help him, they hadn't found anything. But the last time he had stumbled into camp he had been hallucinating invisible torturers and raving like a madman. They knew he had been running around on his own, and honestly, they had been worrying about him, because he clearly wasn't in the best mental state. He was bound to hurt someone or himself.

"Is that Nico?" Annabth whispered.

Percy nodded. "I think he's...uh, not completely aware of what going on?" he said, struggling to find the politically accurate term for batshit crazy. "He's talking to Bianca." he whispered.

They walked up the hill as quietly as they could, listening to Nico's voice talk to Bianca.  
They got to the top and saw Nico sitting at one of the empty tables with his back to them, talking to a little girl sitting on the table. They had been eating granola bars, as evidenced by the wrappers around them. The little girl was smiling at him, perched on the surface of the table so that she was about eye level with him. They seemed to be arguing about something, using their hands a lot as they talked.

She looked up at the sight of Percy and Annabeth coming up to the pavilion.

Percy was so confused. What was Nico doing?

Percy cleared his throat.

Nico turned towards him. "Hey Percy. What are you doing up so early?" the guy looked better than he had the last time Percy had seen him. He was still gaunt and he had circles under his eyes, along with sunken cheeks, but he looked calm. His black jeans, skeleton T-shirt, and aviators jacket were still rumpled and sloppy, but he didn't look murderously insane anymore, just creepy and unsettlingly dark. Hey, that was pretty good for Nico.

"Um... Sorry, but who is that?" Annabeth asked, looking at the little girl.

The little girl was slender and tiny, not chubby like most toddlers. She had silky black hair, dark eyes, and olive skin. She was looking at them curiously, oversized goodwill clothes hanging off her delicate frame.

Nico smiled. "This is Bianca. She's my, uh...daughter."

Percy did a double take, making a choking sound along with Annabeth.

"What? Your what?" Percy choked.

"My daughter. I named her after my sister, of course."

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other, more confused than they had ever been in their life. Nico with a kid? The thought didn't even process. They walked numbly around to the table, sitting down across from Nico and the girl.

Bianca turned on the tabletop to face them.

Annabeth looked awkwardly at them. "So, Bianca, how old are you?" she asked.

Bianca held up three fingers. "Three," she said shyly, with great enunciation for a toddler.

Nico beamed.

Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. Wait, so three years ago Nico had...? They were completely lost. Was it even safe for him to have a kid around him? The last time they had seen him, he had been a shrieking lunatic, swinging wildly with a sword at monsters in his head and trying to kill Percy in panicked desperation. That kind of thing would probably upset a kid, combined with the time a year ago he had burned the Hades Cabin to the ground, while skeletons and zombies climbed fighting over the flaming cabin, ripping it apart while Nico helped. Saying he was unstable would be the understatement of the century.

"Do you live with Nico?" Annabeth asked, looking nervously between them, probably trying to decide whether or not she should call social services. Nico with a kid was the worst idea since square wheels. This was not going to end well.

Nico narrowed his eyes, guessing what she was thinking. She averted her eyes, feeling chills.

Bianca looked at him uncertainly. "Ummm... Yes?"

The little girl was frowning, like she was thinking.

Nico stopped glaring and switched his eyes to Percy. "I didn't know she was alive until three weeks ago. Then I lucked into her and her uh, mother, and now I've been traveling with them. She's not here." he said, his head jerking from side to side nervously as if looking for her, eyes looking panicked for a second before forcibly calming. "She's doing something else, she wanted me to show Bianca the camp, she wouldn't leave Bianca. It's okay, it's okay." he said, mostly to himself.

Percy and Annabeth looked confusedly at each other again. "So, her mother helps raise her?" they checked, hoping that a person of extremely questionable sanity wasn't raising a kid on the streets chased by monsters all by themselves.

Nico nodded. "Yeah, well, we all travel together sometimes. I haven't seen her in a week though, she's on a run for her employer."

Annabeth tried to ignore how shady that sounded. "And her mother is..."

Nico sighed, pinching his nose. "None of your business. Anyway, I was just showing her the camp in case we both die and she has nowhere to go. Of course," he added, looking at the little girl suddenly. "If that happens, go to the Underworld first, come see us. Here's the address, and some money for a bus route there." he said, hurriedly scribbling an address on a scrap of paper and shoving a handful of rubies into the little girls jacket pocket.

"Um, are you planning on dying?" Percy asked. Nico shook his head.

"So Bianca," Annabeth said, already doing her weird girl fawning thing over Bianca. "Do you know any math?" Percy looked at her weirdly. Leave it to a daughter of Athena to ask a three year old something like that. He guessed Annabeth was going to cram twelve years of schooling into the little girl whenever she saw her, seeing as Nico hadn't gone to school since sixth grade and wasnt likely to see the need for it.

Bianca looked confused. "Math like school? I'm not going to school."

Annabeth glared at Nico before turning sweetly back to Bianca.

Percy jerked his head at Nico, climbing off the bench. Nico followed him to the other side of the pavilion.

"Nico, since when do you have a kid? That doesn't make any sense! How did that happen?" Percy hissed to him.

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Well, when a boy and a girl get together..."

Percy waved his hand annoyedly. "Not that! I mean, have you thought about this? I don't know how else to put this Nico, but you're not exactly stable enough for kids! Last time I saw you," he said, lowering his voice more. "you were completely gone! Like trying to kill me while screaming in pain gone! You can't have a kid around that! What are you insane?" Percy bit his lip after saying that last part. Very poor word choice.

Nico narrowed his eyes dangerously. "I'm fine, Jackson." he spit out.

Percy looked at him pleadingly. "Look, just think about leaving her here at camp with Chiron, where she can get looked after properly! You can visit all the time, but that way she's just safer, Nico-"

He was cut off by Nico eyes, radiating cold disgust and anger. "Leave her with you? Oh, do you _promise_ that she'll be safe? You're not going to take her away from me again, Percy. She's staying with me. We're fine."

He stalked back to where Annabeth was fussing over bruises on Bianca's arms. She glared disapprovingly at Nico, like it was somehow his fault. Nico glared right back.

Unfortunately, just then a couple campers came up to the pavilion, usually for some before breakfast socializing, but stopped when they saw Nico, Percy, and Annabeth along with a toddler already in the pavilion.

It was a couple girls from the Aphrodite cabin, with Piper, plus a girl from Hebe and Leo, who was shamelessly hitting on the Hebe girl.

"Annabeth? What's going on?" Piper asked, looking at Nico and Bianca.

Nico sat back down at the table, eye level with Bianca. "You see? People can never mind their own business. They have to socialize, or their lungs close up and start hemorrhaging, and they choke." he said exclusively to her, like they were observing a separate species.

She swatted him on the head with her small olive hand. "Don't be mean. Hem-or-agging isn't fun." she said in her quiet little voice. She pronounced the word carefully and slowly, like she was worried about saying it wrong.

Nico grinned at her playfully, rubbing his head like it had hurt.

Annabeth looked at Piper, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. "Um, Nico's here...and this is his daughter."

Pipers eyes widened, her eyebrows shooting up a foot. "His what? Wow."

The other Aphrodite girls squealed and rushed at Bianca. Bianca looked scared, like she thought they were going to attack, until they flocked around her, giggling and playing with her hair.

"Oh my gods, she's soooo cute." said Pipers friend Madeline, lifting up a lock of Bianca's hair. "Her hair is like SATIN!"

Bianca smiled shyly, causing the Aphrodite girls to squeal again. Nico rolled his eyes, holding the girls hands in his own. "Stay calm Bianca, they're like wolves, if they smell fear, they'll drag you away with their teeth and give you a makeover."

Bianca laughed, and Percy started at the sound. It sounded familiar. He brushed off the thought, watching the Aphrodite girls coo over the girl. He guessed it must've been a girl thing, because even Piper was making baby noises at her.

"Jeez," Leo said. "Why's everyone so excited over her?"

The Hebe girl glared at him, her mother was the goddess of youth after all, and huffed away to go sit at another table, crossing her legs and arms.

"Ah...wait no, Amelia I didn't mean it like that! I love kids!" Leo called quickly, walking over to her table and trying to talk to her again.

Piper rolled her eyes at Leo's incompetence, and turned back to the shy little girl, who was a little dizzy from all the attention.

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**(AN) Thanks for reading! Please give me constructive criticism. I also really need your help, please give me your advice on who her mom should be! Trust me, I will value ALL of your opinions and ideas. Nothing is stupid. None of your OC's are out of the question. I have a couple ideas, but I want to make it the best it can be! The story could go a couple ways...very drastic differences depending on who she is. I'm planning to make this a very long story, so...**


	2. Chapter 2

"Go to sleep."

"I'm not tired."

"You will be tomorrow." Bianca said, looking knowingly at Nico, who was rubbing his eyes and pouring over the scrolls that were busy turning to dust on the floor of the crypt.

The dusty gray room was small, and most of the space was occupied by three stone sarcophagus that contained the coffins of the dearly departed and her two sons. Cobwebs laced the corners of the room, giving it a whimsical look, at least in Bianca's opinion.

Bianca sat on the stone coffin of Andrew Hannins, her legs pulled up to her chest, chin tucked over her knees. Silky black hair spilled down the back of her worn gray sweatshirt, that was almost unnecessary for the warm August night.

Nico was sprawled on the dusty stone floor, trying to decode the decaying ancient texts by the light of a flashlight, despite the fact that it's batteries were dying.

"Bianca, I'll be fine. It's not even five yet. Besides, I don't recall being the one who fell asleep while I was busy giving myself stitches last week. It's like you don't even care." Nico mock pouted at her, and grinned.

Bianca concealed a smile of her own and rolled her eyes. "You were fine. How much more is on that page?" she asked, gesturing at the scroll.

Nico sighed, rubbing his eyes again. "I don't know, twenty minutes? It's hard to tell. It's written in Byzantine by a madman, so it's not exactly the Cat in the Hat for me, alright?"

Bianca hopped off her sarcophagus and sat back down next to Nico on the floor again. "Okay, Okay. Why don't you take this half, and I'll take this one."

"Wait, your half is smaller."

"I can't read these languages as well as you can. And I never voted to do this anyway, so you should be grateful for all the help you get." Bianca said, shifting her pile over and grinned at Nico again before stooping over the disconnected scrawls with a pencil.

Ten minutes crawled by, and Bianca stretched and leaned back. The heavy stone door to the mausoleum was cracked open, letting a waft of cool air from the graveyard in. Bianca yawned, climbing on to the coffin of the late Elida Hannins and stretching out.

"You're going to strain your eyes, Nico." she said, smiling softly at him.

"Yeah, yeah. Why don't you go to sleep?"

" 'Cause I need to make sure that you go to sleep." Bianca said, pulling her spare jacket from her little backpack and bunching it up under her head.

Nico looked up, smiling and about to say something else, but Bianca gave him a long look and he rolled his eyes and carefully rolled up the scrolls, putting them back in their cases, to put them carefully in one of the pockets on his long overcoat.

He sprawled on the coffin of Jasper Hannins and passed out across from Bianca.

Bianca lay on her back, staring up at the cobwebbed cieling. Sometimes if she listened hard enough, she could hear whispers, maybe from the breeze skimming across the doorway, maybe from something else. Her long black hair fanned out over the coffin. When she was doing something dangerous, she would braid it back and tuck it up under her floppy green cap, but she liked it best long.

For her seventh birthday last fall, Nico had given her a curved silver hunting knife, which she took out of its sheath and held in front of her, turning it so it caught the faint moonlight coming from the crack in the door.  
It seemed to glow in recognition when the moonlight hit it, but it might have been a trick of her eyes. Smiling faintly in the darkness, she put it back in its sheath on her hip.

She took a tiny music box out of her pocket and opened the dusty lid so that the enchantment inside could play soft music to her while she fell asleep in the tomb, listening to the whispers.

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**(AN) Hello, second chapter with Nico & Bianca the II. I will probably post more chapters taking place between the first chapter and this one, as a lot of time has elapsed since then. No, I still don't know who the mother is (Although I have many ideas). I would love it if you guys could give me your input/advice on that one.**


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